It took me a very long time to finally create and refine a template in Scrivener that really works for me, and now with the new version's beta, it looks like there are changes that will really screw up my template. For example, take a look at how I use color labels to differentiate the different POV characters/storylines in the binder and outline views:

Using this method, I can see very clearly the intervals between each POV/storyline. Also note how the text is much brighter against the background colors for the outline view.

Now, in the new beta version, the color labels are limited to just little squares and dots in the binder view instead of the entire background, and visually it's just not as immediate or clear (it makes a big difference to us visual types). (Sorry about blurring the text--for some reason resizing alone wasn't enough and the texts were still readable, and this is unpublished work.) Also Notice how in the outline view, the text is a lot darker (a gray instead of white). This is because Scrivener is simply using the text color from my Windows theme. That is NOT ideal because I customize my Windows theme specifically for my operating system's usage needs, not for writing fiction. When I'm working on my writing, I have a different set of needs, and Scrivener should allow me to customize my writing software specifically for my writing needs. It is ALWAYS undesirable when any software that allow you to customize the appearance down to the level of text and background colors, but then still force you to use some of the colors from your selected Windows theme. This really screws up whatever customizing parameters you were planning on using specifically for that software. If you're going to allow us to customize our own templates with our own colors, then allow us to change everything that matters, because you have no way of knowing what our Windows theme might be and the colors from it might be undesirable for writing workspace.

Ideally, Scrivener will allow us to customize the text color not just in the editor, but also the binder and outliner views too, so we can coordinate the text color to our customized color labels for maximum readability and planning needs.

Another thing is the lack of a "dark theme" in scrivener. For people who can't stand looking at bright backgrounds while working on the computer, not being able to get rid of bright backgrounds in the GUI is just torture for us--it actually hurts our eyes and gives us headaches. If you're not bothered by it then you'll never understand how much it affects us. There's a reason why in many software and apps people have begged for dark themes for years but too often software developers just ignore us (Evernote being one of them). They ignore us because we're not numerous enough for them to give a shit about our eye-sensitivity problems.

In the new beta, the collections/search results tabs now only have bright background, whereas in the previous version, it used the custom color label colors as background, which is much better, because it gets rid of the bright background, and it also allows much easier visual identification.

Also notice how the top menu strip and the text formatting toolbar is almost impossible to read due to the text color not working well with the Windows Theme I'm using. This wouldn't be a problem if Scrivener stopped using whatever Windows theme colors the person is using and just used its own set of GUI colors that's independent from the Windows theme. Plenty of software do this so I don't see why Scrivener can't do this.

I have brought this up numerous times in the past, and I had given up on ever seeing it addressed, but after seeing the new corkboard feature of being able to arrange index cards by label, I'm encouraged, because that was a feature I had begged for too, but after long discussions here in the forums, I was told it's never going to happen because it fundamentally cannot work with Scrivener's document arrangement structure. Yet here we are--somehow the developers made it work. So I figured I can't just give up and need to continue to speak up and have my voice heard, for the hope that one day I will see my other suggestions/needs addressed in the future.

Bit of a wall of text there Luna, but just reading the first part you are wrong on labels. They can still be coloured completely. Try the menu view / Use label colour in / Show as background colour in binder. Not read the rest of your post as now I assume it may state more assumptions that are wrong.

Argoed wrote:Bit of a wall of text there Luna, but just reading the first part you are wrong on labels. They can still be coloured completely. Try the menu view / Use label colour in / Show as background colour in binder. Not read the rest of your post as now I assume it may state more assumptions that are wrong.

Thank you for pointing out the label color misunderstanding. The rest of my post is right though, because I've had the same discussion with Keith years before. (TL:DR version is that Scrivener should not choose its main GUI colors from whatever Windows Theme that the user is using, and instead should have its own choice of GUI colors that can be customized.)